Sunday

midnight juggernauts @ the forum

i was reminded of this shoot when i received an email the other day if i could send some highres images so they could possibly be printed as part of the au review's 2010 yearbook of live music photography. i had this strange feeling that i never actually blogged these photos, so i went through my blog archive and aha! i was right.

now, there was actually a reason as to why i never blogged these photos. whenever i go out to shoot a band, i never really think twice about "what if i don't get any photos" i simply put all my camera gear into my bag, head out, arrive at the venue, have a quick look at the stage i'll be shooting and just wait for the support bands to start. well, this midnight juggernauts gig was one of those shows that whacks you in face and reminds you that you need to be on your feet at all times with photography.

at the time i didn't have my 85mm f1.2 (which is amazing to shoot live gigs, and is so so great in low light). all i had was my 50mm f1.4 which at the time i though was a pretty good lens, and my 24-70mm f2.8. when i had a quick look at the stage before any bands got on i thought the 50mm wouldn't be such a great lens to shoot with since the stage was quite big, all the photos would look a little bit far away. i decided on my zoom.

the first support band got on and he was great to watch, listen to and shoot. the second support band, dappled cities (who i really really love) got on and they were also fine. at this point, the photographer's pit was also very sparse, there was only me and a couple of other shooters, and we got the usual three songs to shoot and we're out, which was fine.

as we're waiting at the side of the pit for midnight juggernauts to get on stage, more and more photographers turn up. i think there was at least about ten of us, which i thought was a little bit ridiculous, usually there's only about six. anyway, midnight juggernauts get on, the stage is pitch black for the entire first song they play. there was barely any room to move around to get a good shot and we only had two songs left to shoot. the next two songs were a little more bareable, there was a small amount of light, it didn't change much so you couldn't get a variety of photos, but hey, at least the stage wasn't pitch black anymore!

there was nothing i could do, i had to crank up my iso to be able to get a properly exposed image and just forget about the grain. you had to make the little amount of light be as interesting as possible in your photos and not care if you get in the way of any other photographers as you're all trying to get the same shot in the small amount of time we had left. and because of my lens, i could only get my aperture down to 2.8 - see how hand my 85 would have been at this point!

regardless of all this, i managed to get some good photos, which at the end of the day, you need to do no matter the conditions. i managed to meet a lovely photographer by the name of ian whom i've told you guys about before and got into the mosh pit afterwards with my cousin to enjoy the rest of the show - which was awesome!